Lake Stevens flooding and lake level:what to do when the water comes up

Lake Stevens covers 1,040 acres and has an average depth of 64 feet. ^[3] It is fed by Lundeen, Mitchell and Stitch creeks and it drains out through a channel along Hartford Drive into Catherine Creek, and from there to the Pilchuck River. Everett Herald reporting describes that channel as the lake's only outflow. Since a large surface area leaves through such a narrow exit, a big storm raises the lake quite quickly, and then it drops only slowly.

The weir does not help as much as people think. Each spring the city adds boards to hold the lake up for summer, and each fall it takes them all out. A 2020 outlet study found the weir does not adequately control the lake in the wet season, because at that point the channel's width, height and slope set the flow. ^[1] Knowing this helps set expectations: when the lake is high in December, there is usually nothing anyone can open to bring it down in a hurry.

Everett Herald reporting from December 2015 put the lake at about 212.5 feet at that time, against a high of 212.8 feet in December 2012, in tracking that began in 2010. The city was then treating 211.8 feet as high. At that point some private docks on Vernon Road and North Lakeshore Drive were partly underwater, and water covered plants at Lundeen Park.

Those are older figures. Later documents may use different vertical references, and we have not been able to confirm how they line up. For your own purposes, the local level that matters is the height at which your own yard, crawlspace vents and door thresholds get wet. Ask the city which gauge and datum it uses when you see a figure.

A wet season here builds over weeks. Published normals from Everett show about 5.8 inches for November and around 5 inches each for December and January, with modelled figures for Lake Stevens being higher and possibly overstated. Rain on already saturated ground runs off quickly into the creeks. The record November 2021 rain pushed the channel over the road, even after a recent dredge of 300 feet. Atmospheric rivers can come in series, as they did in December 2025 when the Snohomish River hit a record downstream. So keep watching for several days after a storm has passed.

Once water drops, the cleanup differs from a clean leak. State guidance treats lake and river floodwater as black water, so soaked carpet, pad, insulation and drywall are generally removed instead of being dried in place. ^[6] Hard surfaces get cleaned, and then the structure is dried. If you have a crawlspace, ask to have wet insulation and ground cover taken out, since they will keep the space damp even after the lake falls. Read about crawlspace water damage for what is involved.

When the lake stays high, the ground beneath the house keeps supplying moisture. It can be sensible to do the urgent removal and first-floor drying now, and complete the crawlspace once the water table comes down. This is worth talking through with any contractor you speak to, so that you are not surprised by a second round of work.